Social%20Life%20in%20Renaissance%20Venice

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Social Life in Renaissance Venice

• HTAV Student Lecture 2008
• Dr K. Peterson

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• Key knowledge
• Social structures of Venice during the
  Renaissance i.e. The three classes, the
  outsiders and the institutions that had a social
  function such as scuole, guilds, parishes,
  sestieri, ghetto, fondaco
• The social map of Venice the relationship
  between geography and the patterns made by where
  people lived, worked, worshipped, socialised and
  celebrated and the extent to which these
  reflected social identity, wealth, gender and
  class relationships.
• The importance of various aspects of social life
  , family, marriage, dowries, institutionalised
  charity, social legislation and festivals and the
  laws and social conventions that influenced them
• This involves both looking at the separate
  elements and then rearranging them in order to
  explore the nature of the relationships, the ways
  people were included and excluded, the social
  networks

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• OUTLINE
• Study design key knowledge
• Social divisions
• Some networks within the patrician class. -
  family and marriage
• Dowries (a convention
• Connection to the social map and historians
  views on sestieri and parishes..
• Women
• Scuole
• Foreigners
• Some sources.

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Patricians Hereditary ruling class. In the C
16th all patricians have to be inscribed in the
Golden Book
Doge Elected for life.
Cittadini de intus et de extra (granted
citizenship). Reward must have paid their taxes
Cittadini originari right by birth C16th
Silver Book
Popolani. Plebs (Roman term term)
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Patricians about 4.5 of population by mid C
16th Long/short/new families
Rich/poor Male /female
Young and old Large families/small
families. Dennis Hay argues nobility embraced
such a wide spectrum of wealth, political
prominence and family size that it could almost
be described more as a microcosm of society as a
whole than an elite. Cittadini about
5 originari (hereditary and provided the
bureaucracy, diplomatic posts to be nourished
under the shadow of our signoria i.e. sinecures.
Trade within Venice and the Empire. De intus et
de extra (Granted) Could legally trade as
Venetians in Venice and/or the Empire in their
own right. Descendents could acquire hereditary
status. Popolani - Over 90 of
Venetians. Everyone not in the other Classes.
Manual worker and servants Foreigners .
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C 16th patricians Contarini and Sabellico
believed that there were only two classes in
Venice the elite (privileged) and the
rest Contarini described Venice as nobiles and
plebs but he did acknowledged that were some
offices and honours for some plebs. HOWEVER
Marin Sanudo in 1493 wrote that Venice counted
three sorts of inhabitants nobles, cittadini
and lesser people popolo menuto or artisans AND
the Florentine Donato Giannotti described
Venetian society as composed of cittadini, who
exercised more honoured trades acquired some
splendour and gentlemen who ruled the state
and popolari, the most miserable trades Luigi
da Porto, Vicenzian noble in a letter in 1509
described Venetian society .. In Venice, as
you know, there is no popolo as such guild
members with a traditional political role apart
from a few with long established citizenship, who
indeed hate the nobles, but dare very little. All
the rest are such new people that there are very
few of them whose fathers were born in Venice
and they are Slavs, Greeks, Albanians, come from
other times to be sailors, or to earn money from
the various trades pursued there.
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Some currently available and very useful sources
that outline the careers of many individuals and
provide useful statistics.. Ersie Burke, Two
Venetian Merchants - HTAV Cats in Senior
History Ros Otzen, Noble and Cittadini Families
in Renaissance Italy HTAV Readings,
1985 Chamberlain, The world of the Italian
Renaissance (brief summary of Andrea B
arbarigos life, if you cannot get Lanes
biography. . Chambers, Imperial Venice. G. Wills,
Lion City. (note particularly Tomasso
Rangone) M Laven, Virgins of Venice Enclosed
lives and Broken Vows . Lond.2002 Martin, J D.
Romano eds Venice Reconsidered, Johns Hopkins
2000
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Some statistics and quotes relevant to marriage
(Mainly from Martin and Romano, Venice
Reconsidered) Chojnacki a sample of 890
patrician marriages in C 15 1C6th shows only 9
married out of their class.and the incidence
decreased over time J. Grubbs wider sample
suggests 15 in the C 15th married outside their
class By mid C 16th about 50 of patrician
women never marry 1506 instigation of Book of
Gold births had to be registered within 8 days
.Reinforced existing legislation denying status
to the illegitimate or those born to low class
women. Dennis Romanos research suggests that by
the C 16th social hierarchy was more rigid, as
shown by the new emphasis on the status of the
MOTHER, not just the rank of the father.
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Benedetto Bordone, 1528, woodcut. Notice the
exaggerated protective enclosure, the churches,
the key commercial and trading centres.
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ALDUA MANUTIUS An example of networks based
on trade, humanism, and the cramped geography of
this face to face society Born about 1450
near Rome. Humanist educated. Became a Roman
citizen and was a umanista until he was about 40.
A friend of Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola,
Ficino and others. Learned Greek He was
fascinated by langauage, pronunciation and the
way languages change. Decided to become a
printer in Venice, not Florence, because he
could get investment capital. His partners were
Doge Barbarigos wealthy nephew and the popolani
printer, Torresani, a self made man, well
connected through the trade. His house
accommodated up to 30 people (family, servants,
humanist visitors and his workers.) A mix of
sweat shop, boarding house and research
institute. It was opposite the Pisani family
palace. Marin Sanudo lived nearby.
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• Chambers The patrician families, so small a
  proportion of the total population, did not
  dominate neighbourhoods, as they dominated
  government.
• Patricia Fortini Brown 1582 about 50 of
  patricians rented their Ca and the proportion
  was higher in previous centuries.
• House leases usually ran for 5 years, so there
  was considerable movement as family fortunes rose
  and fell.
• Typical large, wealthy Patrician families, the
  Pandolfo and Morosini rented the ground floors of
  their homes to 49 non patrician families in 7
  parishes as accommodation or shops.
• Chojnacki used the tax census records of 1379 to
  show
• 98 of patricians with more than one male, had
  members in different sestieri.

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Sestieri Is there an historical debate?
Administrative importance San Marco is the
richest but they are heterogenous in social
composition. Est. C 12th to administer
government loans Represented in the Collegio The
Nightwatch Signor di Notte based on the
sestieri Scuole Grandi in each by the C 16th.
Parishes Historians seem to agree with Brian
Pullen that the Parish was the basic social
unit, apart from the family. The priest was
chosen by the householders and the area was
governed on behalf of the Signoria by a patrician
from a great family living in the parish. The
patrician, called the Cape di Contrada, had to
recruit men for the state galleys, make
assessments for forced loans, and check the
activities of taverns and foreigners. For the
popolo the ties extend across many
parishes Where born Where worked Where
married Where his guild met Where his scuole
met Where received first communion Where the
great preaching churches were Where he wanted
to be buried
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Lane The integration within these parishes
was a foundation stone of Venices social
stability. Venice Maritime Republic p.
12 BUT Romano By the second quarter of the
C 15th a new political and social order had begun
to emerge in Venice. Gone were the days of
loosely formed associations that cut across
social strata, drawing Venetians together in a
myriad of contrasting and complementary ways..
The old sense of community was replaced by a new
and equally compelling sense of place.
Patricians and Popolani. P,158 Evidence Decline
in patrician support for local festivals, like
the the three Maries. Patrician bequests to
the poor of the parish decline from early 1300s,
probably 1 in 4 to the 1400s, 1 in 20.
  Early 15th patrician youths encouraged to
join stocking clubs rather than associated with
local popolani youths  
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1416 Francesco Barbaro, in his treatise on women
what is the use of bringing home great wealth
unless the wife will work at preserving,
maintaining and utilizing it, To do this she
should Imitate the leaders of bees, who
supervise, receive and preserve whatever comes
into their hives, to the end that, unless
necessity dictates otherwise, they remain in
their honeycombs, where they develop and mature
beautifully. In order that a wife does her
duty and brings peace and harmony to her
household, she must agree to the first principle
that she does not disagree with her husband on
any point. Moderata Fonte (Modesta da Pozzo),
cittadini class, wrote The Worth of Women, 1592
She died in childbirth the day she finished
it Look what a good deal marriage is for
women! They lose their property, lose themselves
and get nothing in return, except children to
trouble them and the rule of a man, who orders
them about at his will.
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Ethnic map of Venice early C 16th. (Note
influence of arsenale, Molo, Rialto on ethnic
concentrations. Remember the Grand Canal was a
focus of wealth but not restricted to Patricians.
.
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Other institutions that reflect social
relationships e.g. The Fondaco (merchant
accommodation and warehouse) Early C 14th first
Fondaco dei Tedeschi - to ensure German
merchants pay taxes Late C 15th its doors and
windows shut from outside at night because of
smuggling BUT the German merchant, von Harff
was most impressed with the convenience of the
fondaco and the attitude of Venetians to
foreigners. 1530s tighten the rules so wealthy
merchants could not buy the right to live
outside. This is a response to the Protestant
ideas that were rife among the merchants. Yet,
within the fondaco, Lutheran worship was
permitted. Venetian motivation can be linked to
the political and economic bases of the the
state economic self interest while protecting
the republic from moral pollution in a form that
also gives some benefit to the other side.
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• Laws and activities These also structure social
  relationships You need to consider whether they
  are inclusive or exclusive?)
• Sumptuary laws (dress and food) They have a
  moral, economic and social dimension (but
  Venetian women remained notorious for their
  fashions and display)
• Institutionalised charity Procurators of St
  Mark (patricians appointed for life who
  administer bequests) subsidised housing and
  grain scuole
• Regulation of prostitution and foreigners
• Mouths of Truth throughout the citydenunciations
  to Co of 10
• Clothing laws Patricians, prostitutes and Jews
• Festivals and processions
  
• Clubs for young men e.g. Stocking Clubs
• Games and licensed violence e.g. Nicolotti and
  Castellani and bridge fighting.

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• Over view of the social map of Venice
• Heterogeneous social map, but with some areas of
  concentration
• Networks - based on family, work, religion,
  location, gender
• Laws and organised activities
• Over time the movement is towards tighter
  stratification, but the reality was always more
  varied than the official picture.
• Friendships develop within these functional
  networks rather than being the basis of
  membership of the network.
• The conventions regarding things like marriage
  contracts, dowries, property arrangements,
  location of families, the formal institutional
  structures for administering charity are part of
  what makes the networks functional, and results
  in the social relationships of Venice being
  largely co-operative or pragmatic ..

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The Rialto Brothel, 1460 Chambers and
Pullen By command of the most illustrious
Signoria the Lord Heads of the Sestierei have
been entrusted with the task of finding a
suitable and proper place where the whores must
abide. and have agreed that the best solution
and the lest harmful to that island Rialto
would be for these sinful women to abide in the
houses of the noble Priamo Malipiero Don Priamo
has granted them to the Heads of the Sestieri on
the same terms and conditions, and at the same
rent, as when the first fortified brothel, which
is now to be demolished, was built. A 1512
sumptuary law in Venice Waiters and cooks who
serve at any feast are compelled under fine... to
come to the office of the three Sumptuary
Officers of the Senate and declare the time and
place of any banquet for which they have been
engaged, in order that our office can find out if
the law will be violated.